BS-IV Fuel To Be Available Across The Country By 2017

Dharmendra Pradhan, the Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas, has informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply that the ministry has decided to make BS-IV–compliant fuel available across the country by April 2017. This will be done in a phased manner.

Initially, BSIV-compliant fuel was supplied to the whole of north India, which includes J&K (except Leh/Kargil), Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and the bordering districts of and parts of Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh. This ‘phase one’ target was achieved by April 2015.

In the next phase (starting from April this year), all of Goa, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha and the Union territories of Daman & Diu, Dadra-Nagar-Haveli and Andaman & Nicobar, parts of Maharashtra, as well as parts of Gujarat will be covered. In this phase, the special corridor linking Rajasthan, Gujarat and other parts of northern India to the ports on the west coast will also be supplied with the BSIV-compliant fuel.

In an earlier ordinance dated May 22, 2015, the ministry had conveyed to all the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and stakeholders that it would be upgrading directly to BSVI-compliant fuel from the current BSIV by April 2020. As a first step towards this target, the OMCs have already started pumping in investments of up to Rs 30,000 crore in order to upgrade their refineries to achieve complete BSIV-compliance by 2017.

Once this is achieved, an additional capital of approximately Rs 30,000 crore is expected to be injected to ensure that the refineries are BSVI-compliant by April 2020. The ministry added that carmakers are ready and have not cited any inability to make their vehicles BSVI-compliant by the said date.